GET THE INSIDE SECRETS OF AMERICA’S TOP INSURANCE AGENTS! Subscribe to Insurance Profit Systems’ TIP OF THE WEEK now! Don’t miss out on the marketing secrets other agents are using to shoot their income through the roof!  More Information.

How to increase your Yellow Pages – and any other – advertising response by 400%

Let’s talk about critiques for a moment. You know that part of your Inner/Gold Circle Membership entitles you to a number of advertising/marketing critiques from me. Yellow pages are a common request. (My best home run on a YP critique, by the way is a 1200% increase in response, when the IPS member took all my suggestions and ran with them. I regularly improve response by 200-400%, but only when the agent follow though!)

Unfortunately, a lot of you aren’t getting your money’s worth. That’s because you’re sending me something that needs to be completely re-written. I can critique what’s there, but I can’t completely re-write it for you. To get the most for your money, I need something to work with.

So, I’m giving you my ADVERTISING SELF-CRITIQUE TEMPLATE. Unless you want me to answer the same questions I’ve already got below, you should answer them first. Then I can take my critique to the next level for you.

• Does your ad call out to your ideal prospect? The most common problem here is that most agents don’t profile their ideal prospect before they write their ad. Bad. Agents who complain about only getting “sub-standard” clients from the YP invariably have an ad that either appeals too much to that client – or doesn’t screen them out. You can use the “pre-head” effectively for this: Attention good drivers! Or Announcement for Clark County Business Owners! Or you can put it in the headline, then support it with your bullet points.
   
• Warning: Don’t Ever Place an Ad Without an Attention Getting Headline. ‘Nuff said. A headline is exactly what it sounds like. This is a concept that’s been developed by the newspaper industry – and perfected by the National Enquirer.

Rule #1: Use the Big Promise Principle. David Ogilvy said the heart and soul of advertising is the “big promise.” Use it here. What’s your BENEFIT to the reader. Is it newsworthy? The name of your agency is not a headline!

Rule #2: Meaningful specifics, not vague generalities. Save money is vague. Exclusive New Program Saves You Up to 17 – 23 – 39%! is specific...and it’s meaningful to the reader.

Rule #3: Must pass the “that’s for me!” test. When someone reads it, the ideal prospect must be silently muttering, “that’s for me!” Again, the name of your agency doesn’t fit this, unless they are specifically looking only for your agency and won’t possibly be swayed to any other ad (in which case, it still should not be in the headline). 

• Benefit laden bullet points. Does your ad have bullet points that are loaded with benefits to the customer. For example, compare “automobiles” to “state of the art automation gets your quotes from up to 17 different insurance companies instantly – so you get the best price, best coverage almost immediately!” This is not to say you shouldn’t identify the kinds of coverages you offer, but the more interesting you are in the way you say it, the more you’ll capture and keep attention.
   
• Secondary reasons to call. One of the most powerful, least used techniques. My favorite strategies: 

1. An eavesdrop line. Record and edit the comments of your raving fan customers. When a prospect calls, they hear “audio testimonials” of real people saying great things about you.
   
2. A consumer awareness line. Prospects call to find out “7 Ways to Save Money on Their Auto Insurance”, etc. It’s an “audio free report.”
   
3. Free reports. This is where you can position your expertise to different consumer groups (personal lines and business, for example). Plus your unleashing the Law of Reciprocity.

Our experience has routinely been that offers for ‘secondary reasons to call’ dramatically increase response even if they don’t follow up on the “secondary reason”. Remember, it’s response your after, not just giving away free reports!

• Your picture, with a caption. Your picture humanizes your ad. People like to do business with people...but turn a “mug shot” into a sales opportunity. Put a meaningful message next to your picture, so the reader feels like your “talking” to them. “With over 78 years of cumulative experience, our staff can get you the best.
• Unique Selling Proposition: YOUR BIG PROMISE. This is a discussion unto itself. Your USP is the cornerstone of every marketing campaign, every sales letter, postcard, ad...and yes, Yellow Pages ad. No, it doesn’t need to be the same for every piece. Most likely, it won’t be the same in different markets. But every communication needs to answer the question:

“WHY SHOULD I DO BUSINESS WITH YOU ABOVE ANY AND ALL OTHER OPTIONS?”

If you can’t answer that, you haven’t answered the question that resides, at least unconsciously, in the heart and mind of every single prospect in your universe.

• Optimize your “real estate.” You’re paying good money for that space. Every square centimeter should be intended to do one thing only: sell. Sell by getting attention, building rapport and making an irresistible offer. I’m always amazed at the amount of “real estate” in any given Yellow Pages book in any given city that is devoted to meaningless graphics and line drawings. One of my favorite YP ads is the complete “advertorial” style ad that really looks like an article or a “consumer awareness message.” These often start with a headline like: Warning, Do NOT Buy Insurance Until You Read This Message. 

I’m raising this here because these ads consistently out-pull the graphic intensive ads and loaded with nothing but words in an otherwise “uninteresting/non-creative” format. 

Most agents (and merchants of any kind) are too timid to try this format, but a thorough study of most metro phone books will usually un-earth a few courageous souls who are glad they took a chance.

Bottom line: the line drawings that the YP rep wants you to use because they take up expensive space will not sell.

• Make ‘em an offer. An offer is comprised of: 1) what you’re putting on the table and 2) what they need to do to pick it up off the table. Simple enough, but most YP ads don’t really provide an offer.
  I suggest you always provide a “soft offer”: free insurance audit , free report, “instant quote”. An IPS member provides a free mug to everyone that swings by the office in his small, but upper crust coastal town. Doesn’t sound like much, but, combined with his “folksy” YP image, it drives people to the office. (This last example is what I call the “irrelevant premium.” Sounds silly, but this kind of premium can often drive the sale.”
   
• Use the most powerful words in the English language. You’ve got them in your basic Inner Circle Membership kit. Words move the masses...may as well use the ones the move them to you!
   
• Call to action. Always speak to that little prospect that lives inside everyone’s brain: the one who just needs to be told what to do in this confusing universe. Tell ‘em what to do. Call now. Call now for an instant quote. Call now to save up to... Call now and get your free report. With YP, there’s pretty much one thing you want them to do: CALL NOW!

After you review your advertising against the above ADVERTISING SELF-CRITIQUE TEMPLATE, please review my booklet on Yellow Pages advertising that comes with your membership kit. I have only seen one YP ad in my career that I did not feel could be improved quickly by using the above template. Boot Camp grads know that one exception – and it could be improved with a small amount of “digging.”